1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hard-metric (abbreviated as HM) connector of the type used in exchangers, servers or computers. It uses a press-fit type of shield plate to facilitate the mounting of the shielded connector onto a printed circuit board.
2. Related Art
Referring to FIGS. 5(A), (B) and (C) and FIG. 6, a conventional electrical connector 10 has a press-fit type of xe2x80x9cLxe2x80x9d-shaped shield plate 13 tentatively fastened to its body 12 by making the engagement extensions of a flat top 13a of the shield 13 to be engaged on a front side of the connector body 12. The shield plate 13 has a vertical section 13b extending downward via bent round portion 13c. The rear part of the connector body 12 has its bottom raised to a level higher than the bottom of the front part, thus leaving a space to accommodate a printed circuit board 11. As seen from FIGS. 5(C) and 6, the rear part of the connector body has the male contact portions 3b of the contact pieces 3 projecting downward from the raised bottom, and press-fit portions 13d of the vertical section 13b of the shield plate 13 extend parallel to the male contact portions 3b of contact pieces 3 so that their tapered ends may be coplanar with the tapering ends of the male contact portions 3b. The connector body 12 has female receptacles arranged in a lattice form on its front side, in which the female contact portions of the contact pieces 3 are inserted.
When the electrical connector 10 is fixed to the printed circuit board 11, an xe2x80x9cLxe2x80x9d-shaped pressing tool having a round comer approximately corresponding to the bent round portion 13c of the shield plate 13 is applied to the shielded connector body, and then, a strong thrust is applied to the flat top 13a to push the male contact portions 3b and the press-fit portions 13d into the though-holes of the printed circuit board 11.
Application of a several Newton-strong push to each male contact portion and press-fit portion is apt to bend some or all press-fit portions. Also disadvantageously, before applying a thrust to the connector the xe2x80x9cLxe2x80x9d-shaped shield plate needs to be tentatively fastened to the connector body 12 with a piece of double-sided adhesive tape. This is an elaborate, time consuming process.
One object of the present invention is to provide a shielded electrical connector which is guaranteed to be free of such defects as described above.
To attain this object an electrical connector comprising a connector body having contact pieces embedded therein and an xe2x80x9cLxe2x80x9d-shaped shield plate applied to the connector body with its horizontal and vertical sections lying on the top surface and rear side of the connector body respectively, the shield plate having press-fit portions formed at the lower end of the vertical section, is improved according to the present invention in that the shield plate has a plurality of thrust shoulders formed at its horizontal-to-vertical transition to push the press-fit portions.
The electrical connector can be fixed to a printed circuit board by applying a push to the thrust shoulders of the shield plate, thereby pushing the press-fit portions of the shield plate right in the through holes in exact linear-alignment with the through holes. Thus, the strong thrust can be transmitted to each press-fit portion without any possibility of causing it to be deformed or bent.
The shield plate may have engagement extensions formed ahead of its horizontal section, and engagement projections formed in its vertical section; and the connector body may have catch means formed on its front and rear sides respectively, whereby the shield plate can be attached to the connector body.
This arrangement facilitates the tentative fastening of the shield plate to the connector body without the necessity of using any adhesive agent and/or doubled-sided adhesive tape.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be understood from the following description of a shielded electrical connector according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention, which is shown in the accompanying drawings.